Our Tennis Club

For years, the preferred exercise of my husband and me, besides walking, has been tennis. Oh, we’re pretty bad. We couldn’t actually play with real tennis players. He’s the Double Fault King (but at least, unlike me, he can usually serve it over the net) and I move like the out-of-shape middle aged woman that I am, which is to say, not very snappily. But we love to bat the ball back and forth, chasing down every ball, no matter how far out of bounds the other hits it, and at least trying to hit it on the first bounce. We play until his knees start crying out, “Replace me! Replace me!” and I’ve sweated off what feels to be a couple of pounds at least.

Opened in 2004, Riverbend High School is just down the road from us (and here is where I admit that while my mailing address is Fredericksburg, I actually live in Spotsylvania County). The school is equipped with 6 pristine tennis courts that spend the summer largely unused. Except for us. We usually play on Saturday mornings, and after work when I can muster up the energy. There’s a lot not to like about a relatively huge new school being built in the neighborhood, but in our case, it feels like our own private tennis club.

Now that it’s mid-August, we see the first signs of life at the school. The field hockey team has started practicing, and it won’t be long before the other fall high school sports follow suit. Once the kids come back, we’ll have to revert to using the old, slightly decrepit court at the Chancellor Community Center for our afternoon tennis. So for the next week or two, we’ll take advantage of the long days of August sweating it out on the Riverbend courts.